Several world leaders on both sides of the Atlantic praised Fidel Castro after the Cuban president’s death was announced after midnight Saturday. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s comments summarized his White House’s Cuba policy and predicted “history” would judge Castro’s effect on Cuba and its people.
“We know that this moment fills Cubans—in Cuba and in the United States—with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation,” Obama said in a statement released Saturday morning. “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.”
The president’s reaction contrasted with those of prominent officials north, south, east, and west of the United States alike, which included admiring words for Castro. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said he had “deep sorrow” for “the loss of this remarkable leader” in a personal statement released by his office. “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and health care of his island nation,” said Trudeau, who also recognized the undemocratically elected autocrat as the island nation’s “longest serving president.”
Across the Atlantic Ocean, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker hailed Castro as a “hero to many” on whom the verdict is still out. “He changed the course of his country and his influence reached far beyond. Fidel Castro remains one of the revolutionary figures of the 20th century. His legacy will be judged by history,” Juncker said. Russian president Vladimir Putin, Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi were among the other global leaders who paid Castro tribute on Saturday.
Even some high-profile American politicians remarked on Castro’s death with “fond” words. Said President Jimmy Carter on behalf of himself and his wife Rosalynn, “We remember fondly our visits with [Castro] in Cuba and his love of his country.
Jesse Jackson, who ran to dethrone Carter’s successor Ronald Reagan as president in 1984 and 1988, recognized what he called Castro’s “cause of fighting for freedom and liberation” in a tweet. “In many ways, after 1959 [when Castro took power], the oppressed the world over joined Castro’s cause of fighting for freedom and liberation—he changed the world,” Jackson stated. “RIP.”
The widespread responses largely overlooked Cuba’s well-documented human rights abuses and political oppression, which have been tracked by such organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the New Jersey-based Cuba Archive project, which has worked to tally and verify the deaths of Cubans attributable to the Castro regime.
